Act Tower
Hamamatsu, Japan

HEIGHT: 215m/706 feet
FLOORS: 45 floors
COMPLETION: 1994
ARCHITECT: Mitsubishi Estate Co./ Nihon Sekkei

ACT City Hamamatsu, an ambitious project conceived as a model urban development for the 21st century where music and culture can flourish side by side with industry and technology, opened last October in Hamamatsu, 250 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. Jointly developed by local government authorities and private investors, the 4.3-hectare complex includes a high-rise office and hotel tower, a five-story civic center with two state-of-the-art concert/convention halls, an exhibition/event space and a musical instrument museum.
The centerpiece of ACT City is ACT Tower, a 45-story office building and luxury hotel developed by the city of Hamamatsu, The Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. The 212m-high steel frame and steel frame-reinforced concrete building provides 150,978m2 of floor space as well as the latest in intelligent building systems and amenities. A 324-room world-class convention hotel, the Okura ACT City Hotel Hamamatsu, occupies part of the building between the first and fifth floors as well as floors 29 through 44. Office space, equipped with a card-type security system and energy efficient air conditioning, extends from the ninth through the 27th floors.
The elliptically shaped tower was specially designed to minimize wind resistance. A supertruss was utilized for constructing the set-back upper portion of the tower, whose pillars are positioned differently from those of the lower portion. The structure's complex form posed considerable construction challenges, especially in regard to steel framing work and installation of curved facing materials. In addition to heading up the joint venture responsible for construction, Kajima collaborated with Nihon Sekkei Inc., Mitsubishi Estate, Shimizu and Takenaka on the design.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/3140/103act.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics02/acttower.jpeg

http://www.nihonsekkei.co.jp/works/data/img/actcity1.jpg

http://www.kajima.co.jp/topics/perspect/vol_15_2/multiuse/image/pr15s-09.gif

http://www.act-okura.co.jp/img/top_img_e.jpg

7/10...The side view looks OK, but not the front. The bottom portion is too big and wide, though it is something different. The simple facade goes very well too.

Yeah,this is not the best design.It's decent...in a way :D
7.0/10

I like this design...8/10

Looks so diferent in reality, the rendeings and the computer graphic.

On going by the 1st pic post, nice curves and typically small windows.

7.5 from me :)

7/10, not so very good, but it looks OK.

7.5/10

I like the shape and simplicity of facade and window design.
That thing on top spoils it though.

i like i like:yes:
9/10

dull............
5/10

6/10 not interesting.

7/10

5.5/10

There something wrong with the proportions. 6.0

ok 7,5

4.5/10

I like it
8/10

A design you have to get used to, I guess. I tend to not like it very much, though.

6.5/10

Nice but can be a bit boring. 6.5/10

8/10


Nice tower

6/10

7/10

dun like the bottom

4/10

that ufo on top ruins it, 4

7/10

Some buildings look so empty on photos. This is one of them and I don't like that.

The curved facade is nice but I don't like the setback that cuts through the middle of the building, giving it that pear shape. Also the thing on the top should have the same shape as the rest of the building.

6

Interesting design but not to my interest..

looks bad close up, but from far away it's ok. gotta make this building less dull. they should clad it with more glass to make it look more like the lipstick building. then it'll be interesting.

6.5

8,5/10 - I like it!

Too simply, 6.5/10

8.0, shouldn't be so fat.

The bottom half is out of proportion with the top half, and what the hell is that structure on the roof?

A bad design in my opinion.

4.5

7/10

5/10 Really don't like the shape

Mediocre at best. I give it a 5/10. :no:

nice 7

curved and sleek
i realy like appaers to be almost beveled
8/10

6.5/10

Don't really know why, but I like it...:) 7.5

8.5.

9/10

6.5/10

6.5/10

7/10

It's quite interesting. I like the shape. 7,5/10

8/10

There something wrong with the proportions.

5,5/10

ugly 5/10

7,5/10

6/10

6.5/10 uninteresting

6.5/10

:sleepy: NEIN 6/10.

Holy Fat Building!

5/10

7.5/10.

7/10

no dont like it 5/10

5/10

8/10

5/10

it's ok
8/10

7/10

7/10

7/10

6/10

7/10

8.5 is it really shiny?

7.5/10 Looks alright.

4.5/10

The structure on the top looks totally out of place. The building itself looks boring.

6/10

8/10

7/10

6.5/10

8/10

7.5/10

8/10

8/10

4/10

6/10.

3/10

i like the rounded curves bt dislike the execution 6.5/10

The repetitive facade allied with the slightly curved shape give it a disturbing look of something half organic, half robotic. Maybe the fleshy colour of the cladding points into that direction too. Yuck.
3.5/10

6/10

shampoo bottle.

6. not 2 bad

I've actually stayed in this building. The bottom fatter section is offices I believe. The top thinner part is a hotel. When inside the hotel (which if memory serves, starts on around the 30th floor) you can look up a vast atrium right up to the roof. As it's the tallest building for a very long way around, it really sticks out above everything else and the views are great. There's a great observation lift to the top which provides impressive if not stomach churning views.

I agree that it's not the most beautiful building in the world but looks much better in the flesh than in pictures. Unfortunately all my photos of my stay are analogue and I currently don't have access to a scanner.

I'd give it an 8/10

7/10 :)

5/10

4/10

To massive in my opinion, dull architecture. 5/10

5.5/10

1/10

7.5/10 ^^

7/10

7.5/10

6/10

6.5

08/10

5.5/10

thread moved to Asia & Australia Section :)

7/10

7.5/10

8. Good building. Regards.

7.5/10

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/7576863.jpg

http://melsjetgazette.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/100_0035.JPG

9/10

6.5/10

9/10

7/10

7/10

7/10

I like the colour and the shape is average, but the crown really destroys it

4/10

7/10

7.5/10